Keith and Allura's First Valentine's Day
by Cubbie And Chris
Summary: What happens when the Commander of the Voltron Force receives a surprise on Valentine's Day? Set within main fan fiction Fearless Part 2 when everyone had gone back home to the Castle of Lions after spending R-and-R at the beach in one of Arus' far-flung island provinces. This stand-alone/one-off ficlet is my reply to KAEX Valentine's Day challenge.


What happens when the Commander of the Voltron Force receives a surprise Valentine's Day present/gift?

Set within my main fan fiction Fearless when everyone had gone back to the Castle of Lions after spending R-and-R at the beach in one of Arus' far-flung island provinces.

This stand-alone/one-off ficlet is my reply to KAEX Valentine's Day challenge. All nice and sweet *sprinkles sugary love and shares a box of luxurious (fairtrade) chocolate truffles* Enjoy! :-D

AN1 : font in plain italics = thought

AN2 : font preceeded by a " :: " = spoken through their telepathic bond

(insert obligatory disclaimer clause that I don't own Voltron etc etc)

**KAEX Challenge – Valentine's Day**

"I don't get it Romelle. This Terran term 'boyfriend'... you do realise that a) he's not a 'boy', and b) he's not just a 'friend'," said Allura pedantically, as she tried to comprehend the baffling Terran terminology. She sat on the bed, legs crossed, and gave Romelle a perplexed look.

On the holo-screen, Romelle merely shrugged. She was back at Pollux and the two were having their weekly catch-up call.  
Suddenly, both princesses burst into giggles.

"And you do know what tomorrow is, right?" asked Romelle.

"Err.. no, not exactly. Want to enlighten me?" Allura cocked her head to the side. It was just after lunch and she had an hour till her next scheduled meeting. She'd meant to have a nap, but she'd decided to video-call her cousin instead.

"Valentine's Day," said Romelle with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh, and that's special because…?" Allura asked with a knotted brow.

"Don't _your boys_ tell you anything?" Romelle said in mild annoyance, her arms akimbo.

"Well, I've been… umm... _busy_… lately," Allura replied with a dreamy look, then snapped out of it as she realised what she was doing. She averted her eyes from the holo-video screen as her cheeks turned eight shades of pink.

"Oh, that look of yours!" Romelle burst into laughter. "You can't hide anything from me! Any progress yet?" Romelle gave an exaggerated wink.

"Umm… well… we're taking it slow, and there's been a… uh… significant improvement," Allura faltered. She tried to express herself but suddenly decided not to reveal anything to the Polluxian princess.

"Details, cousin, details!" Romelle egged Allura on.

Allura merely replied with an exaggerated wink, tapped the side of her nose with her finger, then laughed out loud when Romelle gave her version of her patented princess pout.

Allura tried to distract her cousin. "So, this Valentine's Day that you speak of, tell me more about it and let's see if I can whip up something special…"

vvvvVvvvvVvvvv

_I like this new device. The Voltcoms are amazing, and so handy_! Allura thought as she raised her left arm and marvelled at the black-with-blue-outline Voltcom. Designed not just to be a mere tactical device, the Voltron Force's special gauntlet was activated with the power of Voltron's Lions. Worn on the user's forearm, the Voltcom served as their link to the lions and more importantly, to each other. It could also generate weapons based on the user's specific capabilities.

After their initial hand-to-hand combat session to determine what weapons each Voltcom would provide, Allura was surprised that her Voltcom showed not just one, but three possible weapons: a bow with energy arrows (she apparently had excellent visual acuity that proved useful with long-range targets), an energy whip, and a personal cloaking field that bent light around her, rendering her invisible.

She was seated cross-legged in the middle of her bed as she began the first step in her plan. It was her first time to have a "boyfriend" on this "Valentine's Day" and she wasted no time cutting lots of red and pink paper hearts in different sizes. _Perfect. Simply perfect_. She giggled as she finished the last set of paper hearts.

vvvvVvvvvVvvvv

[The next day, 0400 HRS]

Like any dutiful soldier, the commander of the Voltron Force was an early riser. Keith padded quietly to his en-suite bathroom for a quick shower before his day began. Barely awake and bleary-eyed, he nonetheless knew exactly where the shower buttons were without needing to look. Pushing the "cold" button, he suddenly jumped when a large mass of pink and red dropped from the ceiling, surrounding his face.

_What the hell?!_

Instantly awake, he saw several tiny paper hearts dangling from strings, with one red folded paper heart hanging in their midst. Inside was a message in Allura's handwriting:

Why do I love you?

Let me count the ways:

_**1 / 5 : You're my best friend.**  
_

Keith simply shook his head and smiled. What was Allura up to today? And how in the seven hells did she manage to install this contraption? He knew it wasn't there last night.

He finished his shower managing not to get the hearts wet, then with a towel around his waist, left the bathroom and padded towards a nearby chest of drawers to get dressed. As he pulled the top drawer out, another blur of red and pink suddenly popped up from it, surprising him again. A set of pink hearts on slender springs bobbed side to side, with one red folded paper heart in the middle.  
With a lopsided grin, he opened the red paper heart and it read:

_**2 / 5 : You've always protected me.**  
_

Keith smiled again and shook his head. He wasn't sure if he liked being surprised this way, so early in the morning. However, Allura was his first girlfriend, and this was their first Valentine's Day together. Keith grabbed his new black pilot uniform and zipped it up. His thoughts lingered on the past few days, how things had been since they got back from their little R-and-R. Now they were back in the thick of things. He sat at the edge of his bed, pulling on his right boot, and felt something odd inside. Taking it off again, Keith reached in with his hand, and withdrew yet another red paper heart, which read:

**_3 / 5 : You're the most caring and thoughtful person I have ever met._**

Keith was genuinely surprised this time. The commander's brilliant tactical mind did not see any of this coming, especially not from the princess who'd had a full schedule since they'd come back from R-and-R. His curiosity was now piqued as to how (and when) Allura had accomplished all this. Hadn't they been together last night after dinner, discussing her new online diplomatic degrees on intergalactic political science?

_Coffee was definitely in order today. Strong coffee. _

He headed purposefully towards Castle Control, a man on a mission. Lion manoeuvres were in thirty minutes. He figured he had enough time to check the security footage, smiling to himself. He could finally figure out when Allura had snuck into his room.

Pidge was already at Control, doing his morning routine checks.

"Morning, Cap!" chirped Pidge.

"Morning, Pidge. Listen, can you bring up the security footage from the last twelve to twenty-four hours? I need the visual just outside my room and the rest of the corridor."

"Sure. Looking for anything in particular?" asked Pidge as he quickly accessed the footage.

"No, nothing specific." Viewing it in time-lapse, he quickly saw that no one else had entered or exited his room, except for himself.

_That doesn't make any sense! _Keith pondered as he watched it again.

Keith checked the time: 15 minutes till lion maneuvers.

"Pidge, I'll take the spire elevator up to Black this morning," Keith said. "See you out there in a few minutes."

"Sure thing Keith, I'm wrapping up here." Pidge replied.

Keith took the long way to Black Lion via the glass tube elevator that went straight up to the spire. Hunk had set up a mini rec area in Black's hangar for when they needed to chill out on this side of the castle. The mini rec area also had an automatic coffee machine.

_Double shot of espresso with two sugars today_... _just for today_, Keith thought. Normally it was just a single espresso shot. He selected the coffee setting he wanted, but the machine made a high-pitched buzz and nothing happened.

Grumbling, Keith pulled out the coffee bean reservoir and found it empty except for a shiny red foil package stuffed inside.

_What the fu… ?_

He took it out and ripped the foil open. Inside was another paper heart with a handwritten message:

_**4/5 : You're not even aware that you're**_

_**the most good looking guy in the quadrant (and you're all mine!)**_

Keith flushed twenty-seven shades of red. He never considered himself good-looking. Vanity just wasn't in his character.

He let out a deep sigh. _Where are those coffee beans?_

Having finally gotten his much-needed caffeine hit, he was about to clamber up into Black when he realised the last "surprise" could be hidden in the cockpit. He felt the flush of anticipation despite himself. But as soon as he got inside, he found nothing. No note, no dangling pink hearts from the cockpit's ceiling and no folded red paper heart either. Keith checked under the seat and controls and came up empty-handed.

_Okay princess, what are you up to? _

Keith checked the time: it was 0455H. He launched Black out of the spire and into their training area. He brought up the on-screen visuals of his four team mates and promptly greeted them a good morning.

He cleared his mind and snapped into commander mode.

"Let's do this, team!"

vvvvVvvvvVvvvv

Throughout the manoeuvrers, Keith kept an eye on Blue Lion and its pretty pilot. Blue was a bit sprightly this morning, like it had a spring in its paws, and its movements were swifter than usual. Blue's pilot, however, showed no indication of this enthusiasm. The princess looked very serious this morning.

Finally the training came to an end, and just before the lions headed back to their respective dens, Lance suddenly quipped "Hey Keith, aren't we a bit distracted this morning?" Lance's leering grin filled his display screen.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Lance," Keith replied with his signature deadpan look.

"Really? Weren't you a bit off by... point-zero-three percent? " chuckled Lance.

_Too early for this, _Keith thought to himself and smirked wordlessly on screen.

"Anything on your mind, Cap? " asked Pidge. "Zero specifics on the security footage bothering you?"

_They won't let this go, will they?_

Keith had to say something. "Hunk, remind the kitchen staff to replenish the coffee machine at the Spire's rec room."

"There you go team, Cap didn't get a decent cup of coffee this morning!" Hunk exclaimed.

Keith's eyes darted towards the Blue Lion pilot. _She's so composed and relaxed today._

"Anything to add, princess?" Keith asked, half expecting Allura to say something about the paper hearts.

"Me, Captain? I can't think of anything, but I did thoroughly enjoy today's practice session," Allura replied, smiling sweetly.

_Her bond's been awfully quiet all morning, _Keith mused.

_:: Why are you blocking me out, Allura? :: _

No reply came.

Back at Castle Control, they went over the diagnostics and stats from the morning's practice session. All seemed within reasonable error variances, Keith thought. And he wasn't off by 0.030%, he was only off by 0.015%! Everyone else's error variance was between 3 to 7.5 percent. They had yet to get used to the Lions' new control systems and new capabilities. Each lion had been retrofitted with ergonomically designed state-of-the-art armour plating.

Everyone had an hour until the next scheduled training session, which was either in the sim or the gym. Sparring partners were usually randomly assigned by the computer. This helped keep everyone on their toes and be prepared for the day's martial arts class.

"Princess, may I speak with you for a moment please?" Keith asked as the team dispersed_. _

_:: Why have you been blocking me all morning, Allura? _:: a concerned Keith asked his princess through the telepathic bond.

_:: Now you know how I feel when __you__ block me:: _challenged Allura, giving Keith her patented princess pout.

"I got four out of five of your little surprises," Keith said out loud. There were now alone in Castle Control.

Allura's eyes suddenly lit up. Her bond shone brightly, enough to light up a ballroom, Keith thought, as she squealed with delight and threw her arms around him.

He smiled broadly and wrapped his arms around her waist. "That was very sweet of you, Allura. Thank you." Keith said solemnly and planted a kiss on her forehead. He just couldn't believe that his princess had lavished so much attention on him. This was something very new to them both and he had yet to get used to it.

"So, where's the fifth red paper heart?" Keith couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.

"The great Commander Keith hasn't yet found the fifth red heart?" Allura asked and batted her eyelashes. Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Uh-oh, I sense trouble." Keith chuckled.

"Do you really want to know where the fifth heart is?" Allura peered through her eyelashes as she placed her hands on his chest.

Keith swallowed hard. "Do I really want to know where it is? " _Why is Allura suddenly making me twitchy?_

Allura grinned mischievously and stepped out of Keith embrace.

She slowly placed her fingers at the collar of her new blue-and-black pilot uniform and grasped the zipper. Like some slow-motion cinematic reel, Allura very slowly pulled the zipper down… from her neck, to her sternum and halfway down her bosom…

Keith suddenly snapped out of his lascivious reverie and blurted out loud, "Princess! What are you doing?! Not out here!"

Allura stopped, and suddenly pulled out a small silver heart-shaped locket that hung from her neck on a silver chain. On it was the fifth red paper heart she had cut out.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... My commander has such a dirty, dirty mind!" Allura giggled as she teased Keith. _:: I knew what you were thinking Keith ::_ Allura's bond was sumptuously swaying its hips.

_:: You had me there Allura ::_ His bond felt woozy and close to fainting.

_:: Looks like you've been missing something since we got back ::_ teased Allura.

_:: You're such a tease, Allura. You're not playing fair ::_ Keith pouted.

"I just wanted to give you this," Allura said out loud. She placed the locket in the centre of his open palm. "Happy Valentine's Day, Keith." She tiptoed closer and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek, whispering softly, "I'll see you later, okay?" Her voice was full of hope and promise.

And with that, the princess left him standing alone at Castle Control.

Keith stood there stunned and speechless.

He opened the tiny heart-shaped locket slowly. One side held a picture of them together. The other side had a tiny button. When he pressed it, out came a series of holo-images taken at the beach. There were holding each other: she was wearing that beautiful summer floral dress. Her hair was wild and windswept. They were in each other's arms, laughing and giggling in youthful abandon. Their eyes were glowing with love and happiness simply because they were together.

Keith slowly unfolded the red paper heart and read:

_**5/5 : I love you because you are you.**_

_**I will love you always, No Matter What.**_

_**Forever.**_

Happy Valentine's Day!


End file.
